Barrington Irving
Barrington Irving is a Jamaican-born American pilot who previously held the record for the youngest person to pilot a plane around the world, a feat he accomplished in 2007. He is also the first black person and first Jamaican to accomplish this feat. As of 2007, he was an aerospace student at Broward College. His airplane, a Columbia 400, is named the "Inspiration", and was manufactured and assembled by the Columbia Aircraft Mfg. Co. in 2005, classified as a standard aircraft in the utility category using over $300,000 in donated parts.
Irving was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and grew up in Miami, Florida. He is a graduate of Miami Northwestern Senior High School. He turned down multiple football scholarship offers with his sights set on aviation. He later founded Experience Aviation, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering minority youth to pursue careers in aviation. His airplane, the "Inspiration", has been registered to Experience Aviation since 2006.
Irving's record was broken in 2012 by the 22-year-old Swiss Carlo Schmid and in 2014 by 19-year-old Matt Guthmiller.
In 2007 Barrington received a Congressional Resolution for his pioneering work in education in technology. In 2012 he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer.
Among his many honors, he holds the NASA Trailblazer Award, the Guinness World Record and the NBAA 2019 American Spirit Award.
